IT was a simple round trip between Dunfermline and Edinburgh, but in between Donna* had fallen in love with a married man, given birth to her first child and was facing execution for crimes against the Church.

In truth, things had gone downhill for her after she was publicly slapped by the Queen for showing off when she was in her late 20s.

As bizarre as it sounds, this isn’t the script of a tacky period drama and no, Donna hadn’t dozed off in the car while crossing the Forth Road Bridge.

This is past life regression and the Edinburgh nurse has paid a visit to Dunfermline-based hypnotherapist Slavka Craig and been taken back to the memories of a woman named Elizabeth in 15th century England.

Slavka specialises in using hypnotherapy to help patients kick habits like smoking and nail-biting and deal with anxiety and phobias, but it’s her recent addition of using past life regression therapy that is the most intriguing.

The idea is that the therapy can help uncover the root cause of all sorts of issues.

“Not everybody is into the idea of reincarnation and karma, which is fine,” said Slavka. “Whether people believe they are accessing their own past lives during the session or whether it’s memories triggered by it, the whole process will start to release the patterns encoded in your body.

“It’s something science is beginning to embrace, the idea that we carry imprints left by our ancestors has been proven.” Slavka (33) - who moved to Scotland from her native Slovakia nine years ago - begins by inducing a trance to place clients in a state of deep, focused concentration.

From there, she takes them back to three happy memories to stretch out their memory muscles and then they are ready to explore regression.

She said, “No session is the same, you have the basic structure but I have had people telling me the most amazing things. It’s a process of guiding them, say they’re walking down the pathway and they see doors on their side each representing a year.

“You walk that path and you go beyond them, then instruct the subconscious to go to the most pertinent door and see where it takes you.” Slavka was introduced to past life regression therapy through the work of Dr Brian Weiss when she was studying for a psychology degree at the University of Edinburgh.

With the help of her husband, comedian and Press Sport columnist Ross ‘Teddy’ Craig, Slavka switched from a more traditional psychology role to running her own practice, which is called Hypnolight and is based at Brucefield Feus in Dunfermline.

Her initial ambition was to become a clinical psychologist, but after a spell working in a psychiatric hospital she read a book by the American and her interest in hypnotherapy increased.

Dr Weiss, who was initially a psychiatrist and scientist sceptical about the idea of past lives, carried out research experiments which concluded that many phobias and ailments are rooted in past-life experiences and acknowledgment of this from a patient can help the healing process.

The belief is controversial - particularly back home in predominantly Catholic Slovakia - and dealing with sceptics is a regular occurrence for Slavka and other hypnotherapists.

And the 33-year-old, who has an extensive academic background in psychology and hypnotherapy, is quick to point out that she’s nothing like TV hypnotist Derren Brown.

“No one can make you do anything unless you consciously agree with it, if it was possible then certain countries would have been at it years ago,” she laughed. “We have to explain over and over again: it’s therapy, not entertainment.

“If your only experience of hypnosis is seeing Derren Brown on TV, that’s what you will think it’s like. But he is not helping any of us, I’ve had people asking me if I’m going to turn them into a chicken. Well no, I’m not! I have always questioned things and been interested in alternative ideas and to me it makes perfect sense.” * not her real name.